Paper Sample on Search Engine

Introduction

A search engine refers to a specialized computer program designed to extract information stored in the computer or the world wide web. The outcome is returned as a list of links commonly termed as hits, which consists of links to web pages, images, and other files. This has been the case since the advent of the internet. At the initial stages of the internet, Google Inc. was taking its role as the global librarian with its famous mission statement, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," a role that William Tunstall-Pedoe argues did not change anything as one had to go through many links to get the correct information (Vlahos, 2019). In the computer age however, one should not laboriously track the correct information the way physical library worked since the users only want an answer and not the process of hunting through diverse responses. This essay will analyze the impact of the voice-search engine to the conventional internet search engine and their role in information provision, as discussed by James Vlahos through a review of William Tunstall-Pedoe.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Voice Search

First, Tunstall-Pedoe relates the developed search engines as cumbersome as their book stuffed library predecessor. An individual is forced to get the right keywords, from which a long list of links is provided and the reader has to guess the correct one. However, Tunstall-Pedoe suggests that technology should be designed to make tedious processes easier, where when one asks a question in any language or any combination of words, they should get the right answer instantly. The hunger for the correct information without the need to peruse through a long list of possible answers can be associated with the increased growth of voice search, especially in American households with a prevalence rate rising to 78 percent in 2018 (Vlahos, 2019). One market survey indicates that individuals request information from their devices more often than they perform any other task with these devices. As such, Tunstall-Pedoe insists that the search engine should be streamlined to respond to these queries in one single-shot. This means that, as the market demand for the correct answers proliferates globally, the tech-companies and the internet ecosystem must streamline their creation, distribution, and control of data to ensure that the consumers get what they seek quickly.

Driven by the need for single-shot answers, Tunstall-Pedoe initiated a product termed as True Knowledge that would offer the correct answers to different queries. True knowledge had three components; natural language processing system, system amassed facts, and a system that would automatically determine how the facts related to one another (Vlahos, 2019). This indicated the initial changes on how internet architecture would be altered to provide factual, and answer-oriented search. This development of smarter ways of getting answers attracted investors' interest leading to tech-corporations retracing the True Knowledge development steps to create an even better application, such as, Siri by Apple Inc. The foreseeable change in how individuals interact with the internet led to companies like Google acquiring Meta-web in 2010 that was developing an ontology termed as Freebase. Within two years, the company had created a Knowledge Graph with over 3.5 billion facts, indicating a shift from what Google was famous for previously. This suggests that what Tunstall-Pedoe had envisioned, was the only way tech-companies could tap into the increasing demand for single-shot answers. Simultaneously, Microsoft developed the Concept Graph, which had a growth of over 5 million. Around 2017, companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Apple Inc. acquired the Knowledge Graph Development companies with most contemporary researchers beginning to design autonomous systems that search the web for factual answers within the shortest time possible.

Another projected change is the shift from the traditional search to the voice search, with 2020 growth being expected to surpass half of the quests. The transformation is immense because even on the smartphone user interfaces, individuals find it more convenient to request the voice search to locate an application or plan for an event. Tunstall-Pedoe claims that even the trusted old librarians are gradually shifting from the onscreen search to the oracle mode. Google Inc. has also been steadily elevating the prevalence of featured snippets to improve the single-shot answer on either the desktop or mobile devices version of their voice search engine. This means that the search engines are continually providing a short version of the solutions before any other link. For example, when an individual search, “What is the rarest element in the universe?" the immediate outcome is: "The radioactive element astatine" (Vlahos, 2019). This is different from the normal searches where Google would have provided a list of links with information on diverse elements, thus failing to give an absolute and summarized answer.

The voice search that is geared towards a single-shot answer has witnessed a gradual growth, resulting in replacing the conventional internet. The impact is felt more by companies that tie economic interest on their web pages as they depend on page traffic and the reading duration that attracts the advertisers. Most companies need their advertisement noticed through the art of search engine optimization (SEO). Through SEO, companies would tweak the keywords to ensure a higher ranking on the top links. However, the advent of the smartphone led to companies vouching for the top five positions, leading to them paying even more to the search services (Vlahos, 2019). The situation has changed drastically with the rising use of voice search as each company is looking for a position in what is being termed as “position zero.” Position zero means providing the one-shot response, which appears above all the other responses. This position is critical since it is the one that is read aloud by the applications, thus becoming the only one that users are interested in. Greg Hedge advises the companies to streamline their responses to voice-search requirements if they want to retain visibility in the near future (Vlahos, 2019).

Vlahos (2019) argues that for companies to reach the position zero, it is impossible to use the conventional method of tweaking keywords. Instead, the companies are being forced to apply the more natural language, one of the components of True Knowledge, and incorporate such on their sites along with the correct answers. This means that the space for economically oriented sites will be reduced, making such spaces more expensive.

Vlahos Argument Relevance

Vlahos's argument is relevant in many ways. One of the ways is that computers are meant to digitize information and make it accessible easily. However, since the advent of the internet, the search engines have only replicated what the conventional libraries were doing, providing a stack of links and preceding pages that leave the reader guessing and with a vague response in terms of an answer. Vlahos terming the search engines as cumbersome is thus correct as it involves a process of a user getting the right words first, inputting the same on a search engine, and then going through a long list of links, that in many instances, fails to provide the correct answers, making the readers repeat the process using other search words. Computers should drift away from such a trend and starts offering real results as envisioned by Tunstall-Pedoe through True Knowledge. As such, the search engine should devise ways of providing a one-shot answer as that is what the readers are interested in many instances.

The growing appetite for the voice-search engines can be associated with the increasing need for the correct answer. In the article, Vlahos (2019) claims that despite the resistance Tunstall-Pedoe idea, most tech-corporation started moving in his direction with the most renowned apps being the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Through the architecture provided by True Knowledge, google developed over 3.5 billion textual facts through Knowledge Gaps similar to Microsoft that created the Concept Graph, which is one way of satisfying the growing demand for a single-shot answer.

Alternatively, Vlahos argues the sites and individuals are used to perusing through the first ten links without proceeding further. Most individuals will check the first link and dismiss all the other results. As such, corporations have been competing to be in the first ten links to get a chance to be noticed or read. The article asserts that the model is changing with the rising use of mobile phones, where due to their limited screen space, they cannot hold more than five links. With the advent of voice-search and the associated one-shot answer, the sites focus on the position zero, which provides summarized and more direct response, for a chance for their link to be noted. However, this new architecture limits the economically oriented sites as there is no space for ads or attention as individuals are only interested in the read information. For example, if an individual search, "Who is the current president of USA?" the results will be "The current US president is Donald Trump," limiting the possibility of many links that will provide details about the president, presidency, age, and other information. However, such limited information does not sustain the website as it requires traffic, an aspect that has seen the voice search engine crediting the source of information, to prompt the user to click the provided link. However, it is still a hard tussle since the user already has an answer. Thus, the developers are forced to create interesting content that vaguely provides a solution prompting the user to click the link for further details.

Conclusion

Technology is the most dynamic aspect of the contemporary world. However, the flexibility should not replicate the conventional and tedious way performing tasks, but rather, provides a simplified way of achieving the same results. For a long time, the search engines have concentrated on transferring the role of their library predecessors. This aspect has continually made the task of searching for answers online tedious. However, Tunstall-Pedoe, through True Knowledge, sought to revolutionize the process by incorporating a one-shot solution that responds directly to the query of a user without many links. The revolutionary idea has seen many tech giants adopting the same though the voice search engines drastically changing conventional internet architecture method. Previously, for a company to remain noticeable, they had to use SEO, which has since changed to providing direct answers, thus decreasing their likelihood of their links being clicked. Vlahos offers a timely and relevant argument that shows the impact of voice search on the convention internet search. Vlahos does this by providing a detailed analysis of when it began and the factors that led to it being adopted by tech giants. The primary reason for the shift is the search for the correct or accurate answer.

References

‌Vlahos, J. (2019). Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.